In various team sports, it is often desirable to know when one or more players have been in contact with a projectile. For example, in a game of American football, it would be desirable to keep a track of which player has been carrying the projectile (i.e., a football) during playing of the game. Presently, such tracking is often implemented by using cameras, and personnel collating statistics manually.
However, these conventional techniques suffer from a number of disadvantages. Firstly, a viewer watching the game may not be able to identify which player has been carrying the projectile, for example, because of an unclear camera view. Secondly, manual tasks are bound to involve risks of human errors.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,353,791 discloses a method of tracking possession of a sports projectile such as a ball. Based on disclosure a ball has short range radio beacon and each player has receiver for the radio beacon signals and GPS. System can be used to determine which player is in possession of the ball. Problem with said solution is that ball possession could be determined to be on any player in proximity of the ball.
Therefore, there exists a need for a system for determining one or more periods of time when one or more projectiles are likely to be spatially closely associated with one or more players, in an automatic manner.